Industrial shredding equipment or reducing machines typically are used to break large objects into smaller pieces that can be more readily processed, for example as in the recycling industry. Commercially available reducing machines range in size from those that reduce materials like rubber (e.g., car tires), wood, and paper to larger reducing machines that are capable of reducing scrap metal, automobiles, automobile body parts, and the like.
The core of most industrial reducing machines is the reducing chamber, where multiple hammers, sometimes referred to as shredder hammers, are spun on a rotary head, and repeatedly impact the material to be reduced against an anvil or other hardened surface. Hammers are therefore routinely exposed to extremely harsh conditions of use, and so typically are constructed from hardened steel materials, such as low alloy steel or high manganese alloy content steel (such as Hadfield Manganese Steel). Shredder hammers may each weigh several hundred pounds (e.g., 150 to 1200 lbs.), and during typical shredder operations these heavy hammers slam into the material to be shredded at relatively high rates of speed. Even when employing hardened materials, the typical lifespan of a shredder hammer may only be a few days to a few weeks. In particular, as the shredder hammer blade or impact area undergoes repeated collisions with the material to be processed, the material of the shredder hammer itself tends to wear away.
It should be appreciated that the greater throughput that the shredding equipment can process, the more efficiently and profitably the equipment can operate. Accordingly, there is room in the art for improvements in the structure and construction of shredder hammers and the machinery and systems utilizing such hammers.
Examples of shredder hammers and industrial reducing machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. RE14865, U.S. Pat. No. 1,281,829, U.S. Pat. No. 1,301,316, U.S. Pat. No. 2,331,597, U.S. Pat. No. 2,467,865, U.S. Pat. No. 3,025,067, U.S. Pat. No. 4,049,202, U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,125, U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,679, U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,312 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,325,761. The disclosures of these and all other publications referenced herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.